BI Social Commerce Summit: Gilt – GO ALL IN!
The Gilt Groupe has been a leader in the social commerce industry, and it seemed only natural to have its founder, Alexis Maybank as a featured speaker at the Social Commerce Summit. Unfortunately for us, (but fortunate for her!) Alexis went into labor this morning and was unable to attend.
Congratulations on your new bundle of joy!
In her place, Gilt sent Jason John, senior director of marketing who did a Q&A and emphasized how important it is to “Go all in” when marketing your business. He said that Gilt built their customer base “basically for free” as they were on the rise and going viral while social was rapidly expanding.
Q: How much would it [building the customer base] have cost otherwise?
A: Hundreds per customer AND conversion rates would have been lower because it was not natural customer acquisition
John talked about “social proof”, the psychological phenomenon that makes people think that what other’s know is “right” and “good”. That phenomenon plays a pivotal role in social commerce.
Q: Why has gilt done so well? – Is it “social proof” “want to be first” “want to be the “knower” and give others the news? What is the social urge?
A: All of the above … At first the boost of traffic and eyeballs is a result of the buzz with that is behind the velvet rope, but after that, the $25 for referrals and the fact that the site is good, helps retain customers.
John said: “People are a little hesitant to share too much with their friends because they want the product before it runs out…we’ve seen a lot of contradictory behavior”. “Shopping in general is a social behavior. People want to share the ‘win’ of getting a deal with others,” He continued.
When it comes to using social media to grow your brand, John emphasized the gusto that is needed.
“I will advise, there are a lot of sites, you have to pick where you think your traffic is and go all in. Many people put their toes in the water AKA “test and learn”. I don’t think these networks are good for this. When you only put in half, you’ll only get half the results. We’re all resource constrained, but ‘toe in the water’ hurts a lot of companies”.
Q: Do you belong in Posterous or does Posterous belong to the users?
A: “Ultimately the users.” Naturally this will get figured out…
Speaking about platforms in which Gilt is involved, John says “For any platform you need to organically belong or you won’t do well”.
- Works for customer service quickly reach
- Allows you insert yourself into conversations with bloggers (indirectly driving traffic through blogging community)
Youtube
Growing on subscriber site, but don’t see a lot of sales / traffic from it so far. From a branding perspective we want to be there
Tumblr?
Same as YouTube, better with men
G+?
Infancy stage. “Search is extremely, extremely important to us”
Linkedin?
“No not really. Yes from recruiter, but not for sales”
As for the future of social commerce and Gilt, John stated:
- We’ve switched our model – It’s now about customer service/engagement (used to be just getting sales & adding customers)
- Adding/building customer service staff on Twitter to build to customer service and customer engagement
How does one Grow and learn? Push forward. Go all in.
More fantastic speakers from the event included:
Tina Sharkey, of Johnson & Johnson Company:
Sheezan Bakali, of Fab.com:
MORE VENUE PHOTOS:
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